Baseball great and Fox Sports broadcaster Tim McCarver claims he lost about $1 million from his investment account after his broker failed to heed his instructions and keep his money in conservative investments, his lawyer told The Post.

McCarver, 67, has initiated an arbitration case against Morgan Keegan & Co., based in the broadcaster’s hometown of Memphis, for allegedly misleading him on just where his money was invested, said the lawyer, Dale Ledbetter, a childhood pal.

“He was told his investments – made with money he was setting aside for his children and retirement – were tantamount to buying CDs and [safe] bonds,” Ledbetter said.

Instead, Ledbetter said, “the funds were invested in the worst of the worst. When similar products went down 4 percent, 5 percent or 6 percent, these bonds went down 70 percent to 90 percent.

“Tim was very conservative with his money because he grew up not having any,” Ledbetter told The Post.

“His dad was a policeman in Memphis and I knew his dad. Tim didn’t earn much in his early career playing baseball.” Fortunately, McCarver quickly yanked a chunk of his Morgan investment as the dicey investments started to slide – but he’s still in the hole for more than $1 million, said Ledbetter, who has 100-plus other clients with similar claims against Morgan.

Total industry investor losses in Morgan’s RMK funds – which bought controversial CDOs and other toxic assets – are estimated last year at $2 billion.

New York’s Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management, which took charge of the funds this year, subsequently moved to readjust the price of the collapsing assets, claiming the real value had not been disclosed, said Ledbetter.

Ledbetter, who’ll huddle soon with McCarter as they prepare for the arbitration case scheduled for early 2009, said his famous client is not destitute. “But I don’t care if you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or McCarver, somebody can’t misrepresent something and take money Tim worked awfully hard for.”

Morgan Keegan, through a spokesperson, said the funds’ risks were clearly disclosed to investors and that fund managers “adhered to the dictates of the prospectus.” While not commenting specifically on the McCarver case, the spokesperson said in four of eight other arbitration cases related to the funds’ losses all claims against Morgan Keegan were dismissed. Two other claimants withdrew their cases prior to a hearing, the spokesperson said, while in the final two cases, the claimants were awarded less than they sought.